The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Zebulun” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “boat” referring to Genesis 49:13. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 4:13:
Uma: “After that, he continued from Nazaret going to live in the village of Kapernaum. Kapernaum [was] a village of the banks/edge of lake Galilea, in the land of Zebulon and Naftali.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “He did not live in Nasaret but went and lived in Kapernaum a town at the side/edge of lake Jalil there in the place Sebulun and Naptali.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He arrived in Nazareth and then he went to take up residence in the town of Capernaum which is on the shore of the lake of Galilee, on the side of the land of Zebulon and Naphtali.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But he did not reside-with (others) in Nazaret but rather stayed in Capernaum, a town on the edge of the lake (lit. wide pond) in Galilea in the region of the land of Zebulun and Naftali.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Where he went to was indeed Nazaret. But he didn’t settle down there any more. He moved to Capernaum. That town is by the shore of the Lake of Galilea, and in the district of the adjacent lands/ground which were the share of the clan of the descendants of Zabulon and of Neftali long ago.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “He left the town of Nazareth and went to live in the town of Capernaum. This town was was at the shore of the lake next to the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Naphtali” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “deer,” referring to Genesis 49:21. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, sumaw-are-ru (住まわれる) or “dwell” is used.
The various Greek, Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Nazareth is spelled “Nazara” in the Greek text of this verse, as opposed to the usual spelling “Nazareth” (2.23; 21.11). It is obvious that the two variant spellings point to the same place, and most all translations follow the common spelling Nazareth. After leaving Nazareth, Capernaum evidently becomes Jesus’ permanent home (see Mark 2.1).
Dwelt (Good News Translation “live in”) is rendered “settled in (or, at)” by several translations (New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Translator’s New Testament), while Barclay has “made his home in.” The verb is used extensively in the New Testament, with the basic meaning “make one’s home in.” Elsewhere Matthew uses it in 2.23; 12.45; 23.21.
Capernaum by the sea: in the quotation from Isaiah, which follows in verses 15-16, the original meaning was probably the Mediterranean Sea. But in the context of Matthew’s Gospel the meaning is clearly Lake Galilee, and Good News Translation has made this information explicit for its readers. Also, since this is the first time Capernaum is mentioned in the Gospel, Good News Translation defines it fully as “a town.”
The town of Capernaum is on the northern edge of Lake Galilee just to the west of where the Jordan River empties into it. The territory of Naphtali is immediately west of Lake Galilee, extending up north as far as the city of Dan. South and west of the territory of Naphtali is the territory of Zebulun. These were the territories where the two Israelite tribes by these names settled during the days of Joshua. In New Testament times both of these territories were in the geographical region of Galilee.
Nazareth and Capernaum are both towns. The context may make this clear, but some will find that it will help their readers if they say “the town of Nazareth” and “the town of Capernaum.”
Most translations will find it useful to follow the lead of Good News Translation in translating by the sea: “This town was on the shore of Lake Galilee” or “the town of Capernaum which is beside Lake Galilee.” If readers of the translation live far from any lake or sea, then the translation may have “the big water” or something similar for sea.
The construction and leaving … dwelt poses a problem in languages where it is impossible to say he left a place if the information is not given that he had gone there. In such languages, translations have sometimes had “He went to Nazareth, then left there and went to live in Capernaum.” However, it is more likely that the verse reflects the fact that up till this time, Jesus’ home had been Nazareth, where his family lived, and he moved now to establish his home in Capernaum. A sentence such as in Good News Translation would indicate this. Another way to do it is “He moved his home from Nazareth to Capernaum and lived there.”
Zebulun and Naphtali can be treated as the names of regions, as in the phrase “in the territories of Zebulun and Naphtali” or, as some translations have it, “in the region of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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